For you, the most beautiful flowers from Konoha (里イチバンのきれいな花を)
by Sophocleous
Summary: The 4th Great Ninja World War ends. Kakashi becomes Rokudaime Sixth Hokage. In the many mentors, teachers, friends, comrades, subordinates and allies he had lost, one person holds a particularly special place. This story is dedicated to Kakashi and this special person.


August 23rd, 1st year anniversary after the Great War (4th Shinobi World War)

Kakashi steps out of the shadow of the canopy surrounding the Konoha Cemetery. He squints one eye involuntarily from the midday blinding sun. The straight path from the Cemetery entrance to the back where Konoha's Memorial Stone stands appears as neat as usual, grass trimmed right to the edges at an even height. The Ninja Academy's students are responsible for keeping it that way. On each side of the path, the Cemetery lays thousands of Konoha's war heroes to rest. Death comes to all but seemed particularly fond of the best and brightest of Konoha's ninjas, often cut them down in their prime. Kakashi is not above feeling survivor's guilt. It doesn't matter how times he has been here. Each step he takes here seems to remind him – why is he here and the others not? He has lost too many, his mentors, the Third and Jiraiya-sama, his teacher, Minato-sensei, countless of his fellow ninjas during the last Great War, and before that, of course, there was Rin... And... He pauses his stride forward as if suddenly frozen - and you, Obito.

The memory of that spunky and proud Uchiha always stops him in his tracks... Kakashi has gotten into the habit of chuckling to himself when he remembers those outsized orange goggles that Obito always insisted on wearing to protect his "precious eyes" as those eyes would one day surely "** _kaigan_**" ("開眼" or awaken the Sharingan), lead to world peace and be carved along with his face onto the Great Cliff when he became Hokage, or so did Obito say, all the while as Kakashi made snide remarks in front of Rin and Minato-sensei about his slim-to-none chances of ever awakening the Sharingan and how ridiculous he would look with his Sharingan carved on top of this outsized goggles as if his eyes popped out of the eye sockets.

Kakashi gets the blues when he remembers the dark blue of young Obito's jacket and pants, that saturated deep blue, so familiar to him that he can still see it as soon as he closes his eyes, so vividly as if Obito was right in front of him, weaving the hand Seal of Confrontation before they sparred with each other countless times, which, without fail, always ended in Kakashi's win, but the highlight of which was invariably, at least for Kakashi, weaving the hand Seal of Peace by hooking his two fingers together with Obito's, those callused and sweaty fingers; it is as close as Kakashi ever did or ever will get to holding hands with Obito.

Kakashi habitually rubs his own callused hands together to remind himself of the texture of the young Obito's outfits, its linen felt almost as rough as his hands now as the young Kakashi learned and imprinted while countering Obito's taijutsu by grabbing his rough linen collar and pushing or throwing Obito back in one seamless motion in their sparring sessions. Kakashi knew the rough texture of Obito's outfits as well as he knew the silky-smooth texture of his own grayish blue clothes his father, the White Fang of Konoha, Hatake Sakumo always bought him. Kakashi learned many years later that Obito had lost both his parents in the deadly 3rd Great War and grew up knowing only his dear Baa-chan grandma, who spared no expense to make sure Obito had the best clothes and food she could afford even if it meant depleting what little savings Obito's parents had left her. Those rough linen blue outfits that Baa-chan picked up at year-end sales and salt-sprinkled but otherwise tasteless stacks of rice balls for Obito's packed lunches in an old plain wooden bento box were chief among them. "Tou-chan, next time we buy a new shirt, can I get a blue one?" Kakashi recalls how he implored his father, Sakumo to get a blue shirt for him once. "Ooooh, why is that? Isn't gray your favorite color? Do you like blue now?" The young Kakashi blushed and couldn't quite tell Sakumo that it would be a gift for Obito. Sometime after that, when Kakashi finally worked up the courage to buy an unagi eel topped and fresh sushi roll combo lunch special bento box and started walking over with the bento box behind his back to the young Obito, who, as usual, sat by himself under a tree near the Ninja academy during lunch break so no one would see all he had to eat everyday was stacks of tasteless rice balls, little did Obito know no matter where he sat, 2 of his classmates did notice and care, no matter where he was. One, Obito would go on to ask to "_zutto mitekure" (please always watch me) and fall in love with – Nohana Rin. _The other, Obito never asked and never had to ask, for Obito already and always will hold the most special place in his heart – Hatake Kakashi, the current Rokudaime Hokage. But that story will have to wait… "O-bee-toh, you need to eat a proper lunch! I asked _Kaa-san_ (mother in Japanese) to make some extra for you today!" Rin rushing out of the entrance of the academy hollered out to Obito. Obito beamed and shouted back, "_Ahh, Rin ka?_ Come, come! Baa-chan's rice balls are the best! I'll even give you two today! Heehee!" "Obito! You can't eat rice balls every meal", Rin slowed down as she approached Obito and sat next to him as she started unpacking her sakura-symbol gilded lacquer bento box. Kakashi's heart sank then plunged as if suddenly filled with lead. He wasn't about to walk another 20 yards to embarrass himself with his bento box. He made a slight turn and quietly dropped the bento box in a trash bin before returning to the practice range. The _shurikenjutsu_ (ninja tool/star throwing technique) exam that afternoon saw Kakashi miss one target and drop a perfect score for the first time since he enrolled. This was not the last time Kakashi would feel this way, as he later learned again and again.

Kakashi was peerless for the most part of his life, graduating from ninja academy after only 1 year, becoming chuunin, then jounin again years ahead of everyone else, becoming known as the Copy Ninja, "_Sharingan no Kakashi"_, which struck fear in foes and earned respect in friends in the ninja world far and wide and as such, likely never would have known what "competitive" felt like had he not run into the young Obito, whose grit and spunk were as tenacious as his dark spiky hair, which continued to defy Kakashi no matter how many times Kakashi ended up on top of a defeated Obito, whom, over time, the young Kakashi had come to admire and respect, even if Kakashi was too proud to show it. Nowadays, Kakashi often runs his hands through his own white spiky hair and chuckles to himself – his must be stiffer than mine.

Even among all of Kakashi's obsessively detailed memories of Obito's countenance and physical attributes, the young Uchiha's eyes, long before they awakened the Sharingan already stood out to the young Kakashi, for he had never seen such eyes, except in his father Sakumo, in the Third Hokage, in Jiraiyama-sama and in his teacher Minato-sensei, deep within all of whom, the Will of Fire burns brightly and from whose eyes a proud unshaken resolve radiates with strength and warmth. Obito's eyes were those of men who were, are and will be Hokage's. In Kakashi's heart of hearts, in his mind's eye, Obito's resolute eyes continue to shine, illuminate a path forward and guide him with the same strength and warmth Kakashi has come to know intimately and rely on in times of crisis. Nagato was right in a way. One learns the pain of loss and through that pain is the hope for peace born. Wittingly or unwittingly, recalling Obito's eyes is now Kakashi's greatest source of strength but also his greatest agony, that sharp, indescribable, inexplicable and inexorable pang that, at times, seems to threaten to consume his whole being, often at night, in his dreams.

"Obito, today is exactly 1 year from the day you helped end the last Great War. You saved Naruto's life and saved the world. You saved me too, again, as worthless as I was", Kakashi finally steadies himself, raising his chin and taking another stride before hastening his pace as the thought of Obito continues to race through his mind.

Under the scorching summer heat, Kakashi is at least somewhat thankful for the Hokage Haori jacket and the headgear to be made of pure white and breathable fabrics. It'd be easier to ditch the whole damned thing, wouldn't it? He thinks, not quite sure if he means the Hokage attire or the position itself. Godaime Fifth Hokage was all smiles when she plumped down 6 stacks of paperwork, each about 2 feet high on his desk the moment they finished his swearing-in ceremony to take up the mantle as the Sixth. But perhaps becoming Hokage has its perks. Kakashi is about to find out soon for himself if being Hokage really is all that.

The summer heat reaches a climax of making the tomb stones appear to sway and the trees in the distance to dance. Kakashi ditched an earlier meeting with Konoha's senior council to come to the Cemetery for one and only one reason. He is not about to let this final chance go. With a few more quick steps, he had reached the dark granite platform where the Will of Fire red stone sculpture overlooks Konoha fallen heroes' tombstones. The sounds of men working with hammers and chisels catch Kakashi's attention and prompt him to leap once onto the top of the stone sculpture and again with his usual agility over the concrete semicircular wall to a small clearing at the very back of the Cemetery.

"Stop!" Kakashi says, alighting on the ground, Haori still trailing behind him in the wind.

"Ho-Hokage-sama?!" The men almost said in surprised unison. "Yes... uh, but we were ordered by the Elder Council to remove this." One man's chisel squarely wedges on the engraving of a name, "Uchiha Obito" while his hand holding a hammer would have surely delivered a powerful blow to Obito's name had Kakashi appeared one second too late.

TBC


End file.
